Combining Graduate Studies, Research And International Experiences In Sustainability

A new challenge facing engineering educators is how to train graduate students to routinely include sustainability as important design criteria. Equally important is the need for engineering students to both broaden their perspective and learn to function collaboratively in cross-cultural environments. The University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering is addressing these issues by educating a cadre of PhD researchers as part of a recently established Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program in sustainability. We present our plan to create an innovative sustainable engineering graduate program, with primary research foci in green construction and sustainable water use. This interdisciplinary initiative will involve faculty and students from across the School. To best address global concerns, we have partnered with the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Sao Paolo, Brazil to provide an eight-month international research rotation for all IGERT Fellows. In addition, to increase the number of Hispanic American engineering students, we have created partnerships with University of TexasEl Paso and University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Also, to best prepare our IGERT Fellows for study and research in sustainability, a special sequence of courses is being implemented that will include a two-part capstone sustainable design course providing students from the various specialties with a common educational framework. Finally, the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Latin American Studies will develop a sequence of courses in Brazilian Portuguese to better prepare the IGERT Fellows for their research internship. This paper presents an overview of our initiative and describes progress to date with respect to research and pedagogy.